One in four teachers victims of violent pupils, says Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Almost one in four teachers has been a victim of violent pupils amid escalating fears over a breakdown in school discipline, according to research.

Most teachers said behaviour policies in schools were inconsistently enforced, allowing many pupils to get away with bad behaviourPhoto: GETTY

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

4:15PM BST 05 Apr 2009

Some staff have been assaulted or intimidated by children as young as five in the last year, it was claimed.

Teachers said the failure of many parents to act as "good role models" was leading to deteriorating behaviour in many schools.

Almost four out of 10 claimed they had been intimidated by an aggressive mother or father, often after telling their children off or giving them poor grades.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, which represents more than 160,000 staff across the UK, told how one father encouraged his child to start a fight in the playground before school and another provided a raw egg for a pupil to smash over a teacher's head.

They said a lack of moral guidance in the home was undermining their attempts to maintain order in the classroom.

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It follows recent figures from the Conservatives which showed police were called to deal with 40 violent incidents in schools every day and a Government report said gang membership among schoolchildren was on the increase.

Speaking before the union's annual conference in Liverpool on Monday, Mary Bousted, ATL general secretary, said: "We know far too many children are behaving badly at school, even to the point of being violent to staff. This is horrifying enough, but it is hard to be surprised since many children are just mirroring the behaviour of their parents.

"It is clear to me that we need to rebalance the equation. We need to have a serious and sensible debate about the roles and responsibilities of parents and the support that they can reasonably expect of schools and teachers."

She added: "They are responsible for setting boundaries for their children's behaviour and sticking to those boundaries when the going gets tough. They are responsible for setting a good example to their children and for devoting that most precious of resources - time - so that children feel known and valued as individuals and as part of the family."

The ATL surveyed more than 1,000 teachers, lecturers and support staff across the UK.

Nearly a quarter said they had "endured physical violence from a student" and more than four-in-10 said behaviour had worsened over the last two years.

Some 1.5 per cent said they had dealt with incidents of a child stabbing or attempting to stab someone.

But the majority of cases involved "low level disruption", the union said, including talking in class, not paying attention or playing practical jokes.

Staff said violent attacks - including pupils punching and kicking staff and other children - were more prevalent in primary schools. A third of teachers reported incidents among under-11s compared to 20 per cent of staff in secondary schools.

A primary school teacher in England told researchers: "I and other members of staff were physically assaulted daily by a five-year-old, including head-butting, punching etc. He was taken to the head to calm down then brought back to apologise. It became a vicious circle. I was off sick as a result. People often underestimate that young children can be as violent and intimidating as the older ones."

Another teacher said: "A six-year-old completely trashed the staff room, put a knife through a computer screen, attacked staff and we had to call the police. Another six-year-old attacked staff and pupils with the teacher's scissors."

Some teachers told how disrespect had become a "fact of life" in many schools, with many young people openly using mobile phones in the classroom.

It comes just days after the union reported a rise in the number of pupils mimicking catch-phrases from television programmes such as Little Britain in the classroom.

Dr Ian Lancaster, a secondary school teacher from Cheshire, said: "Persistent low-level rudeness and disruption seems to have become a fact of life in education today and no longer raises eyebrows or seems to merit special attention. A sad state of affairs."

Most teachers said behaviour policies in schools were inconsistently enforced, allowing many pupils to get away with bad behaviour.

Nearly four in 10 had experienced "some form of aggression" from a parent, but a fifth said the school did not provide adequate support to deal with the incident.

A secondary teacher in Bristol, said: "Lack of support of teachers by parents is the most disheartening part of this profession and the thing most likely to make me leave it. Poor student behaviour reflects the standards that they see at home and children cannot be held completely accountable for the values (or lack of) instilled in them at home."